George Liacos
Chair and Founder, Spark Strategy
George has more than 25 years experience in doing this specific type of work and has now run more than 3000 such strategic programs. He is highly sought-after, both nationally and internationally, and one of the few Saxton Speakers Bureau’s exclusive speakers and facilitators. As a serial entrepreneur, he is recognised by business leaders as having a depth of understanding across systems and sectors. This makes him a trusted advisor to the highest levels of Government and Corporates to be called on to facilitate bold, reforming and challenging processes.
George’s expertise and capability is internationally recognised, and he has been invited to facilitate events and deliver keynotes at forums across four continents. Blending strategy, impact, commerciality, and systems thinking, George has helped hundreds of organisations design and execute sustainable and impactful change. George’s portfolio spans local to federal government, and community-based to multinational organisations. Recent examples of George’s work include:
- Facilitating the strategic planning process for Orygen, and working with the executive team to deliver on that strategy. This has reframed and shaped Orygen as a national centre of excellence for youth mental health.
- Facilitating discussions between all Ministers of social policy in the Northern Territory to develop a shared outcomes framework.
- Coordinating the social and environmental management of a multi hundred million dollar bid for Stockland, enabling the redevelopment of a residential site that considered social and environmental impact.
- Leading senior stakeholder engagement and coordination to develop the strategy for a successful Bupa contract bid for the Department of Defence.
- Leading and facilitating sector collaborations to solve complex social problems with innovative models, including the education and community health sectors.
- Facilitating the development of an international mental health strategy, bringing together experts from multiple nations to drive systemic change in mental health policy.
Prior roles have seen George as the National Lead Partner for Transformation at Grant Thornton, Program Director for the Department of Premier and Cabinet as well as Chairman and Non-Executive Director for a number of technology and service businesses. Prior to all this he grew and sold an international manufacturing conglomerate based in Europe, meaning he brings a strong practicality and commerciality to his strategic advice.
After success in private sector service firms and start-ups, he has turned his advisory work towards systems change and a sustainable social sector. He holds an MBA from Melbourne Business School and has completed Directors and Chairperson’s courses at the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD).
At the CCA Conference: Applying his 25 years of experience in the sector, George will talk about current trends community-facing organisations are experiencing and the innovative and strategic changes that they face.
You can read more of George’s recent thought leadership here.